Three Hispanic former employees of Target are suing the national retailer over an in-house memo of “Multi-Cultural Tips” that they say perpetuated ethnic stereotypes while trying to prevent them.
Courthouse News reports, the lawsuit alleges discrimination based on Target’s “Organization Effectiveness, Employee and Labor Relations Multi-Cultural Tips,” which included the following notes on Hispanic warehouse employees:
•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;
•Mexicans (lower education level, some may be undocumented);
•Cubans (Political refugees, legal status, higher education level); and
•They may say ‘OK, OK’ and pretend to understand, when they do not, just to save face.
Target told the Huffington Post the memo was used only at one distribution center in Yolo County, Calif, and was never part of any official training curricula, but apologized for its distribution nonetheless.
“The content of the document referenced is not representative of who Target is,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder told HuffPo. “We strive at all times to be a place where our team and guests feel welcome, valued and respected.”
However, the lawsuit alleges the tip sheet was just part of a broader discrimination by the company against Hispanic workers.
The former employees – Robert Gonzales, Bulmaro Fabian and Pedro Garcia-Ayala – allege that management consisted almost entirely of white workers. Gonzales also alleges that when he complained to upper management about frequent use of racial slurs by supervisors, he and his two co-plaintiffs were fired in retaliation.
We shall see how far they get with this.
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
Well, stereotyping is a form of racism, and at least numbers 4 and 5 are blatant stereotyping. The first 3 repeat commonly held stereotypes in some areas of the country, and then purport to debunk them, but what this has to do with multiculturalism is pretty elusive so far as I can see(I would think, e.g., that people could see that not all their Hispanic coworkers wear sombreros). The last point is probably a good one, since it tells people to be certain they are understood.
But you tell me, what do you think the purpose of this "harmless communication" is? It reminds me of something put together to poke fun at Hispanics (except maybe for that last point); I see no valid purpose for a company to put it out.
•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;
May have been somebody's attempt at de-bunking stereotypes with some gentle humor...
Sombreros? Come on...I've been to many parties, bars and festival events where the people attending were predominantly Hispanic, and the only ones I have ever seen wearing sombreros have been in Mariachi Bands or other entertainment groups...
Lord Jim wrote:I get the impression that these three:
•Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;
•Music: not everyone dances to salsa;
•Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;
May have been somebody's attempt at de-bunking stereotypes with some gentle humor...
Sombreros? Come on...I've been to many parties, bars and festival events where the people attending were predominantly Hispanic, and the only ones I have ever seen wearing sombreros have been in Mariachi Bands or other entertainment groups...
Maybe, but this statement
"The content of the document referenced is not representative of who Target is,”
This sounded somewhat "urban legend" to me, but these BigBox stores are known to be less than sensitive to workers disposition, emotional state, or just plain feelings in general. I'm fairly sure the management is trained in the fine art of not giving a shit about their "serfs and underlings." It's all merely chattel to them.
• Not everybody runs from the building if someone shouts "Raid!"
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
dgs49 wrote:The only people taking umbrage with this would be people who revel in opportunities to take umbrage. And a pox on all of them.
Another of those rare times when I find myself in concord with Dave. The "taking offense on behalf of others whether they want us to or not" industry is a bane of our times.
The rather wonderful "women's surfing championship" advert which I posted here, has caused a storm in a tea cup elsewhere. "They are objectifying female surfers, it's sexist" wrote several males, conveniently forgetting that the advert is aimed at female surfers, not them, and features the world champion female surfer....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
I think that's more a consequence of the "hey, let's sue, it's fun and profitable!" ethos over there, but point taken
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Gob--I'd agree with you if I could think of any reason why a memo like this would have been produced other than to perpetuate stereotypes. It's like writing not all asians drive badly, not all blacks are good at sports musically inclined; not all jews are stingy; not all native americans are drunks; etc. Just repeating stereotype in a memo (even when followed by negative) does nothing to get rid of it; at the very least it perpetuates it, at the worst it reinforces it. It accomplishes nothing positive. I just don't see it having any place in the workplace.
Big RR wrote:Gob--I'd agree with you if I could think of any reason why a memo like this would have been produced other than to perpetuate stereotypes. It's like writing not all asians drive badly, not all blacks are good at sports musically inclined; not all jews are stingy; not all native americans are drunks; etc. Just repeating stereotype in a memo (even when followed by negative) does nothing to get rid of it; at the very least it perpetuates it, at the worst it reinforces it. It accomplishes nothing positive. I just don't see it having any place in the workplace.
I can see your point. I wonder if a Brit wrote it?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
